Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Besides the improvements to real property, which is the house, the market value of the land and also basing it on regional development costs of the land. Lets say there is a piece of property in Enterprise, and if there is a comparable piece of property that has been recently developed in the same municipality, that is what they compare it to.

Ten years ago, property was expensive compared to today. In Enterprise, perhaps in the most recent years, a similar type of property may have been developed for substantially more. Perhaps ten years ago, it was developed in the community for $2,500, but today, you would sell it for...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the assessment went out to all the property owners in the Northwest Territories. To try to alleviate the problems, or deal with the problems, different individuals may have with the assessment, a Board of Revision, which is an independent body to receive complaints and to deal with each complaint as they come. That is the process that we have in place to try to deal with this issue right now. The honourable Member is asking the department to take another look at how the assessment was done, and to raise concerns I am hearing here today by different Members representing their small communities. We will do that. I have been asking the department myself because a 300 to 400 percent increase in the assessment is quite drastic. The information I share with you is the information I receive. It is a legislative process as well, however, we will review the system, the way they have come to the numbers that they have. I raise the concern that you have with my Members in the department who are dealing with this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the IAB lands are Indian Affairs band lands. It has never been raised to this department before to consider a block land transfer to Indian Affairs land. I have to go back from experience. I know that different bands in the past from different chiefs, I have done band councils to Indian Affairs themselves to request certain identified lots in their communities to be transferred and made into band lands by Indian Affairs. This is an Indian Affairs initiative. I know that for some years now, Indian Affairs have put a stop to doing that, but I think it is something that could be considered. It used to be done in the past, and we have to find out if it has been considered or done by Indian Affairs again.

As a department within the Government of the Northwest Territories, I cannot speak for the Department of Indian Affairs, a federal department that deals with treaty Indians, to commit to that. Certainly we would like to investigate it and see what the possibilities are. I would work with the individual bands to consider that and be supportive. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was going to say the property tax assessments they do because of the development of land in other areas, I am sort of puzzled. They do not own the land. They cannot sell the land. Yet the market price goes up. The homeowner does not have anything to gain, whether he sells the home or not. He only sells the home. The land is not his to sell, so the property value goes up and he has to pay for that? Or she? I do not understand and I am puzzled. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You are right. It is not the same as ownership of the land, but you can transfer the land that you have in that lease to another person for the remaining amount of time. Most of the leases are in the range of 30 to 35 years. There are a fair number of years of interest in that which get transferred, as well. I am not saying that it is the same value as owned land, though. I would not expect it to be the same as owned land.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as I indicated, the city of Yellowknife oversees its own assessment. As well, it levies and sets its own mill rate. It is the only the community in the North that does that. I also mentioned that the non-tax-based communities, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs provides the assessment services, and the Department of Finance sets the tax rates and gives notices and collects the taxes. In the other tax-based municipalities, including Inuvik, Hay River, Fort Smith, and Norman Wells, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs oversees the assessment. However, these communities set their own mill rates, their own levies and taxes, and they collect their own taxes. There is a difference between Yellowknife, tax-based municipalities and the non-tax-based communities.

The specific question of how they assess the three...the tax-based municipality sets their own mill rates. I do not know what they base it on. That is the system that we have in place right now. Thank you.

In terms of how the formula is used to calculate the assessments, they are all done under the same piece of legislation. The same sort of formulas are used. Where the difference is might be in terms of the comparability of the services versus a non-tax-based community. In Inuvik, because they have a utilidor system, it would get a value, but it would not be sitting in another community. By and large, the same formulas were used. If identical services were being provided to two houses, the assessment part should not change substantially between the two.

From an assessment point of view, where you may find the differences is in the mill rates and things like that, especially if it is in the same region. Because the development costs of land are considered regionally, overall. In terms of the Fort Smith region, we looked into the community development costs in all the communities. We can try to find a specific example and pass that on to you, if you like.